"As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law."
Luke 23: 55-56
Today is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter. It is a day of waiting. It's a liminal space...a place between, a place of transition, a place of transformation. That is how we experience it anyway, 2,000 years after His death and resurrection. The women of Galilee had a different experience. As they walked away from that tomb and the Sabbath began they experienced a death, what they thought was final...an ending. They left that tomb carrying the heaviness of loss and the uncertainty of the future.
And the Sabbath had begun...so they rested as required by the law.
In their deep grief and sadness, in all of the uncertainty they rested. What else could they do?
For the last 13 or so years I have been listening to God for my word of the year. It always comes in the Fall but I take a bit of time to test it out to make sure that it is the right word. This year my word is "wait". When the word came I thought to myself, "I know what this is all about. Well played God, well played." Seriously, I thought I knew what I was waiting for and that this was all about learning to cool my heels and settle into that waiting.
And then a global pandemic happened....
This Holy Saturday the world is experiencing the heaviness of loss of what was and the uncertainty that is to come and there is really nothing left for us to do but wait. We are waiting in this liminal space, this space of between, this space of transition, and this space of transformation.
The question I keep asking myself and God is "How do I wait well?" I have tried that anxious approach, the busy approach, and even the "pretend everything is fine" approach...and you know what things aren't fine and no matter how anxious or busy I try to make myself it won't make the enormity of this situation go away nor will it speed up the wait time.
Instead, I will follow the example of those women from Galilee and carry the heaviness of this loss and the uncertainty about the future into the Sabbath that "is required by law".
I am going to rest.
I am going to honor the grief as it comes.
I am going let this liminal space do its work of transition and transformation in my life.
I am going to be present to each moment as it comes.
I am going to wait in hopeful anticipation of the Resurrection that I know is to come, whatever that looks like.
As we enter the Sabbath of Holy Saturday, I pray that you would be able to experience the deep, peaceful rest of those that know that Sunday is coming and that death has been defeated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You are loved and held.
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